India has a complex relationship with alcohol, stretching all the way back to its independence. Mahatma Gandhi was a champion of the temperance movement. Buying booze from a government-run shop in Delhi is an ordeal. Governments want to be producers of cool because that means having soft power.
An attack on the Kerch bridge—a pet project of President Vladimir Putin that links Russia with annexed Crimea—has prompted a swift and brutal response. We ask what is likely to happen next. We examine the multipolar nature of popular culture: fears of a globalised monoculture of cool have proved misplaced. And why buying booze in Delhi has again become so unpleasant.
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